Secrecy and Security News

May 2004

Public Information, Private Profit? by Michael Scherer, MotherJones.com, May 26. "Long publicly available, a database detailing federal contracts has been outsourced ... to a federal contractor."

Area 51 Hackers Dig Up Trouble by Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus.com, May 25. "Even without aliens, the facility has its secrets, and last year while roaming the desert outside the Groom Lake base Clark stumbled upon one of them: an electronic device packed in a rugged case and buried in the dirt."

Lab says missing classified data no threat to security by Richard Benke, Associated Press, May 20. "Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, said the lab cannot have it both ways: 'If the compromise of this material is not a problem, as they say, then it should not be classified'."

9/11 panel says too many documents stamped secret by Lance Gay, Scripps Howard News Service, May 14. "The 9/11 attacks are a classic example of how government over-classification of documents is preventing Americans from learning information and warnings they need to protect themselves, privacy advocates say."

Some Light on Intelligence, letter to the editor from Steven Aftergood, Washington Post, May 14 (free reg. req'd). "Intelligence budget secrecy is the cornerstone of an outmoded classification system that degrades performance and practically guarantees mediocrity."

Polygraphs Don't Give True Story by Noah Schachtman, Wired News, May 14. "Nearly 75 years since the introduction of the polygraph, there's still nothing close to a foolproof lie detector."

Military Traditions Hamper Sharing of Information by David Wood, Newhouse News, May 11. "America's high-tech military relies on an antiquated, Civil War-era command system that is dangerously slow and cumbersome and stifles direct, honest reporting, defense officials and other experts say."

Study finds federal Web sites offer little critical data for potential terrorists by Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press, May 10. "The overwhelming majority of federal Web sites that reveal information about airports, power plants, military bases and other attractive terrorist targets need not be censored because similar or better information is easily available elsewhere, a taxpayer-financed study found."

Illuminating Blacked-Out Words by John Markoff, New York Times, May 10. "European researchers at a security conference in Switzerland last week demonstrated computer-based techniques that can identify blacked-out words and phrases in confidential documents."

The Taguba Report: Classified Suspicious, interview with Steven Aftergood on NPR's On The Media, May 7. "As you read through the now-infamous report, at what point did it dawn on you that the document had probably been improperly classified?"

Bush Apologizes, Calls Abuse 'Stain' on Nation by Mike Allen, Washington Post, May 7. "Also yesterday, the government's chief classifier decided to open an investigation into the appropriateness of classifying the Army's probe of prison abuses."

Iraq prison abuse images shake the Net by Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com, May 6. "Disturbing photographs of the humiliating treatment of Iraqi prisoners first appeared in a TV broadcast, but it was the free-for-all medium of the Web that amplified the abuses."

Why Bush Didn't Apologize by Fred Kaplan, Slate, May 5. "There was nothing 'transparent' about this probe until the photographs and Gen. Taguba's report were leaked to CBS and The New Yorker. The report, though available on the Internet, is still classified Secret..."